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Thursday, 31 May 2012

Lib Dem MP for Southport John Pugh today offered his full support to local businesses looking to secure Government funding to rejuvenate Southport’s shopping streets after the town failed to secure cash in the first round of bidding to become a ‘Portas Pilot’. The Government is offering grants of around £100,000 to towns across the UK following the publication of the 'Portas Review' in December which called for action to reverse the decline of British town centres. 12 towns from across the country were chosen to become ‘Portas Pilots’ and receive their share of the funding pot following the initial round of bidding which closed in March. A second chance to secure the funding has now been announced by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), prompting local MP John Pugh to offer his support to the ‘Town Team’ who co-ordinated the original bid. The team also received offers of support from local Councillors at their Area Committee meeting on Wednesday evening.

John Pugh MP says:

‘I am very proud of the work done so far by Southport’s “Town Team” in their efforts to secure Portas Review funding. They have done magnificently well to bring our local businesses together behind the bid and to produce a high-quality effort which was very unlucky not to be successful at the first attempt.

‘However, it is important they are not disheartened by narrowly losing out in the original round of bidding. A follow-up round has now been announced by the Government, and so I urge them to continue the excellent work they have done so far in showing off the unique qualities of Southport to DCLG and helping to secure the money which is needed to reinvigorate our town centre.

‘I also welcome the support offered by our local Councillors in backing our bid, and would similarly like to express my willingness to assist in any way I can. We are all firmly convinced that the “Town Team” can bring home the prize, and it is only right that we as elected representatives are on hand to lend whatever support we can in helping them achieve that goal.’

‘Southport's Lib Dem councillors are very happy to offer our support to the “Town Team” and wish them the best of luck in the next round of bidding. This is a real opportunity to get people behind our bid and to have an important discussion about the future of our town centre. Southport could and should be an attractive retail choice for the entire region, so the Portas Review money could help to bring many of the “Town Team’s” excellent ideas to life to help revive our town centre .’

Tuesday, 29 May 2012

We write in response to the recent press coverage surrounding the governance of Merseytravel and in support of the eight Labour Members who have called on the Chairman of the Authority to resign.

When Cllr Joe Hanson was given the lead in reviewing the committee structure, governance of the ITA and the role of the Executive, he had the total support of ALL members of ALL political parties on the ITA.

Throughout the whole time of the review, Cllr Hanson was inclusive and he met regularly with us to ensure that, even though we were minority groups, our views and input was sought and acted on. We were delighted to be able to play our part in working with the Labour Group to bring about the massive changes in the organisation of the Authority.

We were also delighted to work with the Labour Group in uncovering the issues around governance that feature in Cllr Hanson’s report, a report that was commissioned by the Chairman and the Authority.

Now it appears that because the Chairman does not like the contents of the internal audit he rubbishes it saying it was produced anonymously. A case of denial?

Although a lot has been achieved over the last 12 months, we believe that to achieve the change that is still necessary in the organisation and to ensure that good governance is achieved and value for money delivered to the people of Merseyside, that Cllr Dowd should listen to the eight members of his group and resign. If he does not do so, then the atmosphere within his group on the Authority will be so bad that it will undoubtedly impact on the services that Merseytravel deliver to the public.

If Merseytravel is to be truly world class, then it needs a fresh start with someone new at the helm. We will continue to support Cllr Hanson and the other seven Labour members who have called on Cllr Dowd to resign.

Friday, 25 May 2012

Cllr Dowd prevented Sefton Council properly challenging the appointment of Cllr Dowd to Merseytravel . First he deferred the decision to cabinet away from full council thus preventing debate and then he blocked members of the council using the procedures laid down in the constitution to review such appointment when he made it at Cabinet. This was done on the bizarre assertion of a Lab appointee of Cllr Dowd's who claimed it was an urgent matter. Pause for incredulity. The AGM of Merseytravel is on 26 June, there is another cabinet before then. The urgency was packing the Labour group meeting so Dowd can continue as chair of the authority.

No wonder Cllr Dowd wants to stifle debate about his brother. We need a public inquiry so that
these issues cannot be buried. We do not want our local authorities to be run the way Mersytravel has been with no proper accountability. I am gobsmacked the Labour party nationally has not stepped in to sort the situation.

Lord Mike Storey has called for an inquiry as has Esther McVey MP. I have discussed the matter with Southport MP John Pugh and agreed an action plan.

It is odd how many folk have compared Dowd M to Murdoch. I suspect that just as the Levison inquiry has led us to some murky places so would an independent review of Merseytravel.

Thursday, 17 May 2012

In the midst of all the hectic election activity in April it was good to hear from the Birkdale blogs old friend Roy Connell, He wrote to say, well let him speak for himself:

...... the reason I am contacting you is that there have been no Dog blogs of
recent times , so perhaps you could consider this one . We lost Rosie in
October , one of your first dogs on your blog and a special with the Leader!! ,
Beth and I have now acquired a replacement called Chester.He is a rescue Lab
3 years old and the very same colour as Rosie . We only picked him up on Friday
, and yesterday as I was looking though his pedigree chart to my amazement I
spotted that Rosie's dad ( Reeza Milky Way) is Chester's Great Grandad !!! how
spooky is that , Chester's pedigree name is Melting in the Sun( that's what
Chocolate does ).

Tony Robertson with Rosie in November 2008.

Both are better behaved than my Welsh Terrier Toby who got out this afternoon and turned up at the Vets in High Park! Thanks to Mrs Whelan (address unknown) for rescuing him

I really should know better than begin to blog about animals. Last time I did this people sent me in all manner of photos of politicians dogs. I shall stick to Southport only this time and bring you Mike Booth (Kew Ward) and his twa dogs which he and Clare can regularly be seen exercising-poop a scoop bag in hand.
Now who has the 'honest, sonsie, baws'nt face' and whose nights are 'unquiet, lang, an' restless' I'll leave you to judge.

"It is important to note that opposition goes beyond this group as we did not even approach the 25 MPs who have ministerial positions.- many of whom are equally uncomfortable with the idea.

We don't want to drift into a situation where it is assumed that if you live in the north you ought to get paid less.

George Osborne has started a consultation on regional pay and Labour who introduced regional pay for the court service and have proposed regional levels of benefits.

The case for all this is depressingly weak and likely to exacerbate the north/south divide. "

And so when they ask you, and they are certainly going to ask you, how the coalition is better than a Tory majority government you can tell them; thousands of public sector workers' wages in the North would have been cut without us, there would have been not tax cut for low earners, the pupil premium targetting money on the schooling of the poorest children would not have been introduced, Vince's banking reforms would not have been before parliament and Trident would have been replaced by another multi billion pound nuclear weapon (mind you Labour would have done the same as the Tories on Trident). It is not ideal but it is far better than Osborne and Fox would have done by themseleves!

Wednesday, 16 May 2012

I was looking at the stats provided bt StatCounter for this blog and could not help but notice that the folks from Mersey Tunnels aka Merseytravel IP 82.71.185.225 are spending an awful lot of time visiting our website. Well if you are reading this watch out for a posting later this week on the governance issues at Merseytravel. Having been taken to task once publically by the District Auditor I was shocked to learn.........

Tuesday, 15 May 2012

Tony has been a first rate Leader of our Party. He has been in the job for 10 years

l have a great respect for Tony. He has worked
tirelessly to bring together people from different communities and political
parties in the borough to work together. I have been enormously impressed by
his ability to persuade people to work together in the common interest rather
to pursue divisive and sectional interests. Sefton have greatly benefited by
his consensual approach. He is known as the 'world's most reasonable man'!

I am delighted Tony has agreed to become the Lib Dem deputy
Leader and I know he will be a source of wise advice.

Iain Brodie Browne was elected last night (14 May 2012) as the new Leader of the Lib Dem Group on Sefton Council. The Birkdale Councillor had acted as Deputy Leader for the past 5 years.

Iain told the Lib Dem Councillors that their job was to robustly challenge the actions of the ruling Bootle group of Labour councillors and to hold them publicly to account for the decisions they take.

“I met with Southport’s Lib Dem MP John Pugh yesterday to discuss the tough decisions that lie ahead – for example on Libraries, Tourism investment and the Green Belt. Lib Dems have clear policy in these areas and will campaign vigorously to defend them."

“I urge the Labour Leader to announce today that he will apply to the Boundary Commission to review the number of Councillors in the Borough and to agree to a cut for the highest paid Councillors’ allowances.

“There is a very real concern amongst the public that the Bootle Labour Party will turn their back on the rest of the Borough. Already we have seen that all the top positions have been given to Councillors from the Bootle constituency. It would be disastrous if towns like Southport-which elected no Labour Councillors, indeed the Labour vote fell in the town- were not fairly dealt with. We shall judge this administration by it actions not its press releases.

“It is my hope that the new Labour Leader will not go down the road of dividing the different communities within the Borough but rather working constructively with representatives from the whole area. By appointing only his Bootle colleagues to the top jobs he has not made a good start. It would be outrageous if he continued by giving Labour Councillors the key positions of chairing the committees that are established by law to review and scrutinise his administrations actions".

Friday, 11 May 2012

For our economy to prosper and grow we need to reform our economic system. At the heart of this debate is the issue of ownership. The extreme libertarian view of ownership which has led to the dominance of the PLC model of ownership where improving shareholder value is the over riding objective of the company is part of the problem and a chief cause of the economic collape

Will Hutton, who chaired the Ownership Commission, previews the report and draws out key areas for reform. Interestingly when Labour set up the Commission their chief concern was related to so called 'public sector reform'. Hutton makes the point the PLC model at large in the economy was part of the problem.

Liberals in Britain have for a century argued the case for a reform of company law on ownership. We have tried to ensure that the contribution of employees was given equal status with capital- these reforms are more urgent now with the decline in individual ownership and the role of institutional ownership/hedge funds/private equity.

That even Labour councillors are anxious about the way Cllr Mark Dowd behaves as chair of Merseytravel is not news. It is fairly openly discussed. But like an old style city boss he turns on those who challenge him. But now it appears he has exhausted their patience. The Liverpool Post is now carrying two stories on it's website. One by the City Editor which begins:

It has emerged the authority was plunged into crisis in February when a small group of (Labour) councillors wrote a highly critical report of chief executive Mr Scales and chairman Cllr Mark Dowd.

The unsigned report made a series of damaging allegations about poor governance at the organisation.

Most revealing:

The Labour councillors’ report was sent to the Labour leaders of the district councils across Merseyside and was referred to the district auditor.

It claimed Mr Scales had a reputation as “a control freak” and said Cllr Dowd had failed to manage him properly.

The report also said that prior to December there was a culture at the organisation that allowed councillors not to present invoices or receipts for business trips.

It said: “The practice demonstrates... and perhaps more than anything explains the ‘gravy train’ mentality that exists in the organisation.”

“The reality is (Merseytravel) was an old boys club, with little or no effective scrutiny.

“There is still resistance to effective scrutiny with obstacles being put in place which can only be described as the old guard within Merseytravel afraid of change or frightened that the level of scrutiny will raise an awful lot of questions.”

Wednesday, 9 May 2012

A tale of two Oakeshotts (Robert and Mathew) and how together their impact would be stronger..........

What about the workers? I found myself demanding of the radio last week. The shareholders revolt over top pay was the topic under discussion. Now the problem I have with shareholders-a problem shared with most Liberals for the last hundred years-is that their interests are solely getting the biggest return on their capital. They are here today and gone tomorrow-or even quicker than that if the shares are bought and sold on line in the twinkling of an eye.

Liberal have always argued that employees and share holder should have equal status . The party's Co-Ownership plans-which Richard Wainwright called the holy grail of Liberalism- would have amended Company law so that both shareholders and employee appeared together on a common register to elect the board of Directors and removed the obligation to build shareholder value as the chief responsibility of the Directors.

Cameron refuses to accept even one lone token worker on a sub committee of a Board to look at pay. We have championed equal representation! That would sort out top people's pay and re-orientate businesses away from the destructive risk taking options associated with the dogma of 'building shareholder value' and instead concentrating on building long term businesses and growing jobs

I know that I am not alone in welcoming Lord Oakeshott's increasingly frequent appearances on the media to champion the Liberal cause -particularly when the topic under discussion is economics but adding this arguemnt to his undoubted financial expertese would be most welcomeBut let me digress a moment. Oakeshott was the Lib Dem Treasury spokesman in the Lords and Oh how we wish he had been consulted during the formation of the coalition-indeed we wish any economist of note had been -but sadly the thinking in Whitehall and amongst those around the table was dominated by fear of the markets and the impact in the city ,rather than on the impact on men and women far removed from those interests.

I doubt few of us realise the extent to which the negotiating teams failed to take advice until David Howarth (former Lib Dem MP for Cambridge) wrote a review in the Spring Edition 2011 of theJournal of Liberal History :

.............the Liberal Democrat leadership took no external advice about the issue, or about the separate issue of accelerated deficit reduction. Both the Treasury and the Bank of England would have reinforced the acceleration view, given half a chance, but that view is built into their nature. Others took very different positions on the optimal path, from the NIESR’s moderate caution to David Blanchflower’s jeremiads. The puzzle is not that the party took one view or another, but that it did so on the fly without consulting specialists. Has the party of Keynes lost touch with economics as a discipline?

The unemployment rate will r ise to about 9 per cent this year and remain high throughout the forecast period. Elevated unemployment for such a long period is likely to do permanent damage to the supply side of the economy, with large long-run economic costs.

It remains our view that fiscal policy could be used to raise aggregate demand in the economy with little to no loss of fiscal credibility. We have never and do not now advocate scaling back the government’s medium- to longer-term policy of fiscal consolidation. However, the UK also suffers from a lack of demand in the short term. As we noted in our January Review, a 1 per cent of GDP increase in government investment this year would boost GDP by around 0.7 per cent, assuming no reaction by the MPC. A temporary boost to net investment, which has been cut extremely sharply, would have no direct effect on the government’s primary fiscal tar get of balanc ing the cyclically-adjusted current budget in 2016–17.

Ah well, let us return to Top peoples' pay. Oakeshott M was arguing that shareholder needed to be given more power to control the pay in the Board room. There is much talk of binding votes and the revolts at the AGMs of Barclays and Aviva have been much in the news. It all sounds good stuff but I have a problem with the premise. I rather tend to the view that it is the dominance of this form of ownership-ie the share owning plc-that is part of the problem and giving yet more power to shareholder who already have the Ace of trumps and all the Royals in their hands many not be the best solution. You need labour and capital to make a good business. As the report from Kellogg College said after the financial collapse:

..........the UK financial services sector is dominated disproportionately by a single business model, namely the large, shareholder-owned plc. This domination of the shareholder ownership model – whose purpose is to maximise financial returns to the shareholders – proved a lethal combination with the financial deregulation, the creation of new financial instruments and the subsequent rising levels of debt over the past twenty years. Ever greater risks were taken to drive up financial returns and ‘shareholder value’, culminating in the global credit crunch of 2007-2008 which in turn created the first global recession since the 1930s, during 2008-2009, from which the UK and global economies are only slowly recovering.

There are, of course, other models of ownership. Here we come to Robert Oakeshott the John the Baptist of the Employee Ownership model who with Grimond set up what is now the Employee Ownership Association. Together they had visited the Mondragon Co-operatives in the 1970's and came away to campaign for than business model in Britain Grimond was particularly impressed with the Workers' mutual Bank the co-ops set up which provided the capital for the massive expansion. Today there are over 100 co-ops and 100 000 employees. No wonder it has been describe as the most successful entrepreneurial support system ever!

Tuesday, 8 May 2012

When we are the party of government we inevitably experience difficulties at
the local elections.

After all we lost "The keys of the Town Hall " here
in Southport in1907, just twenty two months after our greatest electoral
triumph

I would point out that back them what I -at the risk of sounding like a Serbian Nationalist -like to call Greater Birkdale* was not part of Southport.

Nevertheless this does not alter the truth of the observation and is certainly as good a line as Ed Davy's assertion that 'we have waited 70 years to experience the midterm blues'

*Birkdale and Southport came together to form a new borough on 1st May 1913. Prior to that Ainsdale and Birkdale had already merged. The Birkdale council covered all of Birdale ward and all of Ainsdale Ward plus most of Dukes ward and a bit of Kew ward.

Clive and Ros Baker have emailed me to let me know that The Old Penny Arcade on Southport Pier will be featured at some length on a new BBC2 series, Antiques Uncovered, at 8pm tomorrow, Wednesday 9th May.

This prime time nationwide publicity will continue to bring more happy visitors to Southport Pier and the classic resort of Southport.

Monday, 7 May 2012

In Victorian times Southport used to advertise trips to the town under the marketing slogan 'visit the Lancashire Riviera'! Later on we promoted the resort as somewhere to come in winter because of our micro climate which produced mild weather when all around were suffering a freeze.

It is well known that it is not just meteorolgically that we have a micro climate. For generation Southport has demonstrated that it can buck the national trend in politics.

Southport is one of those northern chapel towns where Liberalism refused to lie down and die in the post war years. The Jewish community -who suffered significant discrimination at the hands of local Tories-joined hands with independent radicals, Methodists and Congregationalists to build a formidable electoral presence. Liberal representation on the Council was never snuffed out and in 1959 Cllr Sam Goldberg was polling strongly in a three cornered fight in the General Election coming in a rare second place.

By 1962 we had taken the Council out of Tory hands. We were early adopters of Jo Grimond's strategy of re-aligning the Left andwere in an unofficial pact with Labour, we won 9 out of 10 seats-all but one of those contests were straight fights with the Tories. Labour stood in the other five wards . We won 8 out of nine seats the following year when all were straight fights.

Come the 1970 General Election -a pretty dismal year for those of us that remember it-Southport again provide Liberal cheer with Ronnie Fearn coming in second. Chris Renard has often quotes this result and Cyril Carr's in Wavertree as important factors in persuading him of the potential for a Liberal revival which duly came along in 1974 when we went desperately close to victory effectively squeezing the Labour vote for the first time

The rest is well known-I will pass over the 1983 General Election- Parliamentary victories have followed and there is now Liberal representation in every ward in the town.

So how do we make the political weather different here? Firstly we ought not to disregard the tradition. Generations of Liberal have contributed to the town. Hard working councillors have built up a reputation for championing their communities. The baton had successfully been past from generation to generation. Common to all those Liberals has been hard work and a clear identity as the anti Tory party. Back to the likes of Sam Goldberg and his wife Madge both were passionate nuclear disarmers and believers in internationally guaranteed collective security as an alternative to war and appeasement. This theme was maintained by the PPC in the 60's Jack Coleman a robust advocate of the European project.

Southport is unlike its neighbours in many ways. Its employment is not dominated by large unionised firms or government employees but rather by small businesses and the self employed. As a proud Lancashire seaside resort we had a clear view of our identity and economic self interest and as David Boyle has pointed out elsewhere their is a strong correlation between Liberal presence and self employment. Our town is full of small businesses and new start ups. At one stage my ward of Birkdale had a record number of new businesses registering for VAT. That is not to suggest that we have not got our fair share of high paid public servants aggrieved that their jobs are under threat and even that some of them are paid as consultants thus avoiding tax

Liberals in this town have stood out against the abolition of our civic identity and proudly proclaimed ourselves as Sandgrounders. I noted that the Tories this year put out a leaflet on behalf of Sefton Conservatives and featuring a women from Blundellsand who lost her seat. We would not make that mistake.

And so we have a generations old tradition of hard working councillors who were putting out newsletters before Wallace Lawler or Cyril Carr and who championed their communities. We have added to that brand Pugh. A robustly independent MP not afraid to speak his mind and one who will not be bullied or cajoled against his best judgement by the whips-or even his activists. He is a true heir to Burke who expressed his view in a famous address to his electors which contaains the often quotes phrase'Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion' he went on:

To deliver an opinion, is the right of all men; that of constituents is a weighty and respectable opinion, which a representative ought always to rejoice to hear; and which he ought always most seriously to consider. But authoritative instructions; mandates issued, which the member is bound blindly and implicitly to obey, to vote, and to argue for, though contrary to the clearest conviction of his judgment and conscience,--these are things utterly unknown to the laws of this land, and which arise from a fundamental mistake of the whole order and tenor of our constitution.

So John's speaks his mind. He pledged to vote against tuition fees in the General Election so despite the pressure he voted against them. From its earliest inception he identified the manifest flaws in Lansley's health Bill and champion opposition to it. I suspect that he will be equally resolute in opposing the imposition of regional pay. He too works hard and has the grudging respect even of his political opponents as an excellent constituency MP. Brand Pugh is an electoral asset worth more than a hundred endorsements from nationally known bigwigs

History, hard work, the Pugh effect, an understanding and identification with the community we seek to serve and one other ingredient helps us win; Tory incompetence manifest by infighting which has alienated their supporters and cut off from them the recruitment of high calibre people. The scale and viciousness of the infighting continues to shock even hardened politicians-although the media choose to ignore it. The most able centre right/right wing councillor -Sir Ron Watson-has been forced out of the council group as have two other former leaders, two popular Mayors and an able senior police officer and a respected and well like Councillor. They seem not to care that this strategy has failed. This Thursday saw the defeat of the Tory leader and her chief whip. The era of Porter/Parry/Griffiths is by any measure the worst in Tory history and they still don't get it! Not only has this allowed Lib Dems to become the natural home of moderate, community minded conservatives it has also allowed UKIP tp prosper by picking up what one reader to this blog described as the Col. Blimp vote. And so it has come to pass that with sensible Liberals to the left of them and Ukip to the right of them the rabble that is the Official Tories have been destroyed. The electorate are not impressed. In the seven Southport seats they are only the clear challenger in two of them. In Birkdale they were fourth as they were in Norwood and Kew wards.

Obvious if any of those factors changed that could impact on the micro climate. If we became complacent and stopped working hard,or lost our status as the major anti Tory party, or lost contact with our electors, or started squabbling amongst ourselves like the Porter/Parry Tory group, if the Pugh brand lost its potency then the cold winds could blow from the north. Our task is to stay on our course and offer the electors a radical non-socialist vision of a better society.

Next up our first gain of the night Pat Keith in Cambridge Ward- a seat we failed to win last year. A enormous swing from the Tory. Pat got twice as many votes as the next candidate. Well done Pat

Cambridge - results

Election Candidate

Party

Votes

%

Pat Keith

Liberal Democrats

1459

42%

Elected

Cath Regan

Conservative Party

734

21%

Not elected

Gordon Alan Ferguson

United Kingdom Independence Party

720

21%

Not elected

Muriel Annie Langley

The Labour Party

566

16%

Not elected

Voting Summary

Details

Number

Total votes

3479

Electorate

9434

Num. ballot papers issued

3479

Turnout

37%

Share of the votes (%)

Pat Keith

42%

Elected

Cath Regan

21%

Not elected

Gordon Alan Ferguson

21%

Not elected

Muriel Annie Langley

16%

Not elected

Our second gain of the night. We have never ever won Dukes ward before. This was amazing. More analysis to follow. Frankly to see the collapse in the Tory vote and the faces of their supporters after so many years of easy victories......marvellous. Well done Tony.

Now there was some anxiety in the camp about Meols but we should know by know that hard working councillors like John Dodd who fought an excellent Focus campaign was going to safe but this surpassed even the highest expectations. Well done Meals ward team

Finally Lynne in Ainsdale. Well done. Our targeting strategy worked. Lynne and Haydn kept their second place and worked hard. Their campaign benefited us all. A great contribution. Many thanks

Ainsdale - results

Election Candidate

Party

Votes

%

Ted Hartill

Conservative Party

1446

38%

Elected

Lynne Thompson

Liberal Democrats

869

23%

Not elected

Stephen James Jowett

The Labour Party

653

17%

Not elected

Jim Doyle

United Kingdom Independence Party

624

17%

Not elected

Barbara Ann Dutton

The Green Party

180

5%

Not elected

Voting Summary

Details

Number

Seats

1

Total votes

3772

Electorate

9556

Num. ballot papers issued

3772

Turnout

39%

Share of the votes (%)

Ted Hartill

38%

Elected

Lynne Thompson

23%

Not elected

Stephen James Jowett

17%

Not elected

Jim Doyle

17%

Not elected

Barbara Ann Dutton

5%

Not elected

Later today we will begin to examine the causes of our success. Watch out for the Pugh effect. An excellent campaigner whose hard work and principled stand on tuition fees, the health reforms and the economic situation has marked him out as a robustly independent MP and a real electoral asset

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Published and promoted by Simon Shaw, on behalf of Iain Brodie Browne and John Pugh (Liberal Democrats), all at 35 Shakespeare Street, Southport PR8 5AB. Hosted by Google Blogspot, who do not know or endorse the contents of this posting.